Vancouver Barracks

Established in 1849, the Vancouver Barracks was the first U.S. Army base location on the Pacific Coast north of California. Built on a rise 20 feet (6 m) above the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) trading station, Fort Vancouver. Its buildings were formed in a line adjacent to the Columbia River about 2,000 yards (1800 m) from the water. It is now located within modern Vancouver.

Ratified in 1846, the Treaty of Oregon was signed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States, thereby ending the decades long Oregon boundary dispute. The two nations agreed to a partition of the Pacific Northwest along the 49th parallel. The HBC was through the agreement permitted to continue running their stations now within American territory, which besides Fort Vancouver included Fort Colvile, Fort Nez Percés, Fort Nisqually and Cowlitz Farm.

Around October, 1852, Benjamin Bonneville arrived with orders to set up a permanent military reservation which encompassed not only the barracks but the HBC Fort Vancouver. Much like Fort Vancouver, the U.S. Army would open military bases near the HBC Forts of Colvile and Nez Percés, opening Fort Walla Walla in 1858 and Fort Colville in 1859 respectively. During this time the "Indian Wars" were an ongoing series of conflicts happening in the Western United States. Famous military men such as Ulysses S. Grant, Philip Henry Sheridan, Oliver Otis Howard, C.E.S. Wood, Arthur MacArthur, Jr., and George Crook were stationed at the fort at various times.